Abstract

In his Insight, Lonergan presents a general form of the argument for the existence of God: “reality is completely intelligible, therefore, God exists.” Its framework may be characterized as a Leibnizian version of the cosmological argument from the contingency of empirical reality to the unrestricted act of understanding. The acceptance of Lonergan's argument presupposes familiarity with his theory of being and objectivity. In my analysis, since Lonergan uses heuristic (second order) definitions and dialectical method in his justification of the complete intelligibility of reality, the argument invites continuous examination of the proposed alternative metaphysical theories.

Lonergan, Bernard. Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan. Vol. 17, Philosophical and theological papers1965–1980, edited by Robert C. Croken and Robert M. Doran. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004.